Trapped
by Hijojo
Summary: A what if story. What if, Nicol had survived the explosion of the Blitz, and then had been captured by Blue Cosmos?
1. Chapter 1

Quick A/N: Just a new story that I thought of. And for the people waiting for Gundam Seed: Reborn to finish up, I'm having a serious case of writers block. Besides this shouldn't be too long, a total of 3 chapters probably.

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed, and any related characters or organizations unless I mark them. I also don't own the beginning of the story, everything up to "**2 hours later**" is a recap of episode 29.

Chapter one: Escaping to a Trap.

Prologue

Year: C. E. 71 Date: 4.15 (April 15)

Things weren't going well for the Rau Le Creuset team, sent again to destroy the Archangel and Strike Gundam, this time fighting near Orb's waters. The Strike Gundam had successfully damaged the Aegis', the Duel's, and the Buster's Guuls, which gave the units a platform to stand and fly on. It had also cut of the Blitz's right arm, and knocked it off its Guul also.

Currently, the Strike was fighting the Aegis on a small island close by. The Aegis attacked, but the Strike quickly dodged and blocked the attacks. It then made a counterattack by punching the Aegis down to the ground, losing its phase shift armor upon impact. The Strike triumphantly raised its sword over its shoulder, as to finish off the defeated enemy.

Then, a cry came out from nowhere. It turned out to be Nicol, using the Blitz's Mirage Colloid to be invisible. It turned the Blitz's phase shift armor back, and warned Athrun to move, while charging with a pole in its remaining arm. The Strike ducks, and slashes the sword through the Blitz, stopping when Kira realized what was happening. The sword entered the cockpit, and moved towards Nicol, slashing him in the stomach with a beam saber. Before the Blitz exploded, Nicol warned Athrun to run and thought of his mother and piano briefly.

**2 hours later.**

On the small island where a battle had just taken place, a small Earth Forces ship landed. A total of 4 men got out. Two of them were carrying various medical supplies, such as stitches and bandages and dressed in a light green outfit. The other two were both in similar blue uniforms. All four of the men walked over to a badly damaged mobile suit, missing an arm, other parts strewn around it, and charred almost to the point of being unidentifiable, and they start walking towards the chest of what used to be a Gundam.

"Open it," one of the men in uniforms said, pointing to the hatch. Immediately, the men carrying medical supplies climbed onto the mobile suit, and opened it with a crowbar. In it they see a young man, with blood running down his face, and a large gash in the stomach. They start inspecting his vital signs and breathing.

"Breath is very shallow. Vital signs are also shallow," comments one of them

"He's lost a large amount of blood. He'll need a transfusion," comments the other.

"Overall condition is decent. Not as bad as many others, but still bad. Needs immediate attention."

"Get him back to the ship now."

The two men pick him up carefully, and start carrying him back to the ship

"Is he eligible?" asks one of the men in uniforms.

"Yes. He needs a recovery time of 2-3 weeks."

"Good. We need a new subject," comments the other man in uniform.

"Make sure not to lose this one," commands the first man in uniform. The two men in light green outfits silently make note of this while entering the small gray ship.

**1 year later**

I hate this place. I really do. It's a place of death and cruelness. It's bleak, with the cells small enough for one person to be cramped, never mind two or three people living here. It includes a sink, toilet, and a shower with cold water. Around those is a curtain. The beds are pieces of wood with a light sheet for a blanket. And they only give us 2 outfits. Both have the exact same clothes: black shorts, and a black t-shirt. Well, on the room size subject, the only decent rooms are the rooms Blue Cosmos takes every day. And those places are even worse.

You can see people being dragged away until they finally snap. That's the worst feeling of all. You can see people you know, or knew, babbling complete nonsense. I'm surprised there are people who haven't snapped yet. Usually, Blue Cosmos injects us with some fluid. It causes the injected person to hallucinate, giving out classified information they have. If they don't have the desired information or results, they get injected again. This time, they see horrible monsters. It makes us see everybody as a monster. You might go crazy seeing these disgusting creatures. After about 15 minutes of that, they use some kind of hand-held machine to scan you. If the scan turns up positive for some kind of fear-induced, coordinator-exclusive serum in the blood, they stick a needle in your arm to get that serum. No one here as any idea what the serum is used for.

Anyways, I'm not good as resisting telling them. I'm too tempted not to tell them. I tell them a little bit each day, enough to let me leave that horrid place. Sometimes it's about the Blitz. Sometimes it's about people on my team. Sometimes it's about my father, who's on the Plant Security Council. Still, other but rare times, it's about the legged-ship we were following.

I honestly fear for the day I run out of things to say. I didn't say anything one day, because I couldn't think of anything to say. I was injected with the second serum after I had a little breakdown and said out loud, that I didn't have. Smart move there, Nicol. That was the worst day I had here.

For the rest of the day, I kept seeing people as those creatures. I even saw my …roommates; I guess you could call them monsters! Always a different one, never the same creature. One of my roommates even laughed the next day, after I apologized when I freaked out when I saw him one time. It was the worst moment there. I was sitting on the small bed I have, trying not to look at anyone, because I knew that I would see them as monsters. He made a large sound, so I naturally turned around without thinking about it. He was a huge monster. He had black fur. There were gold and red claws protruding from his shoulders, legs and arms. He also had a wolf-like face. I kind of freaked out and hit him. Anyways, the next day, I apologized, and he laughed a bit. He said that happened to him constantly, because he didn't know what Blue Cosmos wanted to know.

I sometimes wonder what it's like outside here. I wonder about the outcome of the war. I wonder about what technological advances there have been sometimes. I constantly wonder about my parents. Mainly I wonder how Yzak, Dearka, and Athrun reacted to when they thought I was dead. I imagine Athrun would have been pretty upset, since we were pretty good friends. Yzak…I think he would probably be angry, since he gets pretty angry easily. Dearka…I'm not sure how he would react. The best idea I could come up with is that he would be a combination of sadness and anger, I guess.

I wonder what time it is right now. We don't actually know it. The closest we know is how light or dark it is outside. It's not like we need to know the time, though, but we have to know how bright it is outside. Every dawn, everybody gets up, and prepares for the day. Then we eat whatever it is we eat. Then we have a few hours of rest, and that's when the **_real_** fun begins. They drag everybody out of their room, and herd them into some large room about 50 at a time. Then, they start with the hallucination serum.

That usually lasts for 15 minutes to 45 minutes at most. Then they herd us back into our rooms for the rest of the day. It gets pretty boring around here, also, since we have about 15 hours with nothing to do. Usually, most people, including me, try to sleep. A few others try to make up some games to pass the time. When I don't feel like sleeping, though, I pretend to play the piano. I don't know why. It just helps pass time.

Well, there is some hope to escape from this place. Some people have tried to escape before. I didn't know any of them, but I know most failed. The only exception I know of is some guy who recently was able to crash through a window. I think he's probably going to get caught again, but there's always some hope he'll get help. I really hope he gets help….

Author's Notes:

Wow. What a departure from my usual style. Anyways, this is mostly a testing the waters type story, to see the reaction to it and to see how well I can write angst. The next chapter is actually intending to be less angsty, if I can pull it off correctly. And special thanks to Far-Fetched Imaginer for beat-ing it.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed, or any characters in this story, unless they weren't in Gundam Seed.

Chapter Two: Fighting Hard

He was tired after days of marching through the desert with little sleep. His blond hair now reached his chin and often had to be brushed back. His outfit had many sand stains from falling, and the wind kept blowing in his face.

He needed to keep going, though. They might catch him if he stopped. And he would not be caught again. The place he was at before was unbelievable. Everyday spent there, he thought he would go insane. But somehow, he stayed sane.

He eventually escaped. He and a friend had watched the guards carefully. They eventually had a plan to get out of there. But something went wrong. They had expected the guards to be on schedule, but a guard walked faster and arrived early. The guard had alerted the rest of the base, but they were almost out by then. They were a room away from escaping and his friend had tripped and got killed. He was sad, but couldn't stop. The guards took aim at him, but he managed to duck behind a wall and jump through a window.

That was a week ago. He had been marching through the desert since then. Helicopters or mobile suits came after him after the first three days, but he always managed to slip behind the enemy ship before they saw him. Stealth had been his specialty in ZAFT.

At least, it was before he was captured. He was on a colony fighting to defeat some Earth Alliance mobile suits, but his own mobile suit was torn to pieces and exploded. He managed to get out in time though, but he was barely conscious. The rest he remembered was his ship getting destroyed along with the rest of the mobile suits.

After that, he was in this strange facility in some Earth desert where he had never been before. Heck, he had never been on Earth before! He had no idea where had was going but by some geography class he took before the war, he was guessing somewhere in some ocean. He had seen water, some water after all. He had never heard of a desert island, though.

He continued walking, and again saw some water as he walked through a path that seemed to connect two islands. And then, for the first time since he was captured, he saw trees. He saw more trees on the other island. He managed to form a shallow smile, but nothing more. He thought there might be some hopes of civilization, but wasn't expecting much.

He then heard some jovial laughter coming from the fields. He didn't know what to think of it, but soon came across some kids playing. One pointed to him, and they all ran over. One then came up to him and asked, "Hey, mister, are you ok?" He looked down at the kid and managed a smile.

Then he collapsed.

**1 hour later**

He was somewhere else now. He heard two people close by, talking, but he couldn't make a sound

"So, what's wrong with him?"

"Lots of things. He has sand in his lungs, has slept very little, and has barely eaten for the past few weeks. He'll probably survive though"

"That's good."

"Have we found out what his name is? Where did he come from?"

"Nope. No personal ID on him, and he hasn't made a sound."

With that, he was annoyed, and managed to stutter out his name and number. And even though his eyes were closed, he knew that the people were staring at him. He heard the two people silently jog out of the room.

**½ hour later**

There was a small commotion in the hospital. A new patient had briefly spoken what sounded like his name and degrees of latitude and longitude located in the desert not too far away. Two doctors were talking inside the patient's room when they heard this, and now they were back in it again.

"Well, what information did we get on his name?"

"Here," the other doctor handed the first a report, "Coordinator from the Plants, enlisted in ZAFT, but was reported to be KIA after a battle that took place in a neutral space colony."

"Then why was he wandering around?"

"Not sure."

"Anyways, what about that number?"

"It's longitude and latitude numbers apparently. I'm not positive which is which though. It's either the end of the desert or in the ocean."

"Someone should check out both these locations."

"Well, we sent them to the capital; they'll decide what to do."

Meanwhile, at the capital, a leader speaks, "Our satellites have detected a small base on the island east of us belonging to the Earth Alliance. We are sending over a team to see what's going on there and have sent a message to the base stating so already."

**Enemy Base, Nicol's POV, same time**

Suddenly, there was an uproar around here. Guards were running all over the place, and opening cells, telling everybody to go to the all too small main room. We all were wondering what was happening, and were all hoping to get some answers. I heard murmurs that people were coming, or we were going to be rescued. I really didn't believe either, but they were lingering in the back of my head as a general came on stage with a microphone.

"Listen up," he said harshly, "A team from Orb is coming to inspect this base. You are all now recovering ZAFT members who we picked up and have been releasing when you are full recovered. If you do not fit this persona, you will be dispatched afterwards."

Murmurs were going through the crowd, but the general stared talking again, "They will be coming at 14 hundred hours. That means you have 30 minutes before they come!"

I tensed a bit. 30 minutes was not a lot of time to such a big announcement like this.

The general was not quite finished yet and he spoke once more, "Until then, you will all be here. I expect a good performance!" I rolled my eyes at the last statement. We were all so close to being free, and someone, I knew, would risk his life to tell the Orb team.

We all waited for a while, and then we heard the heavy door opened. First came a tall man dressed in uniform, a blue uniform, with gun in hand. He looked around, and signaled to the outside where a woman with neck-length blond hair and wearing a uniform came in. As I was looking at her, Athrun came in! I couldn't miss him anywhere!

I was astonished. I wanted to just yell out something, and I opened my mouth to, but I remembered what would happen if I did. I started thinking, why was Athrun with Orb now? I didn't think he would betray his father unless something bad happened.

The three continued walking up to the general as I was thinking. When they reached him, the general stuck out his hand. He shook hands with the blond, who seemed to be the leader.

"Welcome to the base," the general said. "As you know, this is an Earth Alliance base. The purpose of this base is to take in wounded ZAFT soldiers and treat them."

"Yeah, and if that's true, why is this location not on any maps?" the blond leader responded.

"Because we're afraid ZAFT would not think that we were doing so, and could accuse us of holding hostages, which could lead to another war."

At this point I was thinking that he's blatantly lying, and apparently others were, too, as somebody shouted, "LIAR!"

The general got a little smile on his face which went unnoticed by the entire Orb team as he said, "Will a guard please escort the man to his quarters for interrupting with his nonsense?"

The guards understood this was a message for, "Go kill him," and so did the man who yelled it. When two guards grabbed him, he started yelling about why he would say that if what the general said wasn't true, which seemed to affect the Orb team.

A few other captured soldiers suddenly jumped the guards carrying the man, wrestling their guns away, and knocking them unconscious. Then chaos started. The general and the Orb team were instantly surrounded by guards, all holding up their guns, while every captured soldier started to try to escape.

But I stood there, wondering what to do, as I was staring at the Orb team, Athrun specifically. He seemed to notice, and we made eye contact, trying to tell if it really was each other. When I couldn't stand anymore, I looked away, to see a guard close by was aiming his gun at the others. I couldn't let him do this, so I ran over and punched him unconscious. I took one more glance at Athrun, who was still staring at me before I ran off to the door.

At the door, there were a large number of captured soldiers yearning for freedom, while others were still attacking guards. As I reached the door, I slowed down to take a look around. Almost all of us were alive, but there were a few dead and a few others injured. Most of the guards were unconscious, but a few remained. The guards around the general and the Orb team were separated, with a few around the general, and the remaining ones around the Orb team. The leader looked annoyed, the tall guard looked indifferent and concentrated, and Athrun still looked in total shock. Most of us were at the door now, and I was still looking at the guards to see if they would shoot.

Then, the blond-haired leader broke out of the protective circle, with the tall guard running after her, trying to talk her out of it, and Athrun, who looked confused walking after both of them. The blond leader entered the general's circle, took his microphone, and angrily asked, "What is going on here? Tell me the truth this time!" loud enough for us to all hear it, so the panic died down, and we looked at her.

The general nervously said, "It's just as I said. We take in wounded Earth Forces soldiers, and treat them." Everyone immediately noticed his slip-up, even the general.

The blond leader smiled confidently, "Your first story was you took in wounded ZAFT soldiers, which is a total lie. The Earth Forces hate coordinators. Your second story was that you take in wounded Earth Forces soldiers. Is that one true, or are both lies?"

Athrun walked next to the blond leader, and said, "I don't think that story is true either, Cagalli."

"Why?" the blond leader, Cagalli asked.

"I just don't think so." I think he was talking about his seeing him

"Ok," she responded, and turned back to the general, "Then what's the true story?"

The general remained silent.

Cagalli turned to the tall guard and said, "Kisaka, go find and check a computer or some papers or something," she turned to Athrun, "Athrun, go find the way to open the door from the inside," and she turned to the general, "And you don't go anywhere."

As the tall man, Kisaka and Athrun went to do their respective tasks. There was an awkward silence. Cagalli finally turned to us, and said, "Depending what we find, you'll be free or arrested."

I smiled a bit at this, since I was confident we would all be freed, and I was happy that the general had been put in his place finally. Besides, we would be leaving here either way.

Athrun, apparently finished with his task, walked next to Cagalli, and stated, "I've got the key."

"Good. Now we have to wait for Kisaka to finish his task, and we can leave."

There was another awkward silence that lasted for a minute or two, and Kisaka called, "Cagalli, I think you should come see this."

Cagalli jogged over to a computer that I had never noticed, and her eyes bugged out in shock of what she was reading. She turned to us again, "Ok, you're all free."

We all knew it was coming, but we were all ecstatic anyways. There was a lot of noise, and everybody was jumping up and down. I glanced over at Athrun again, with a smile on my face this time, and waved a little. He had an awkward smile, and did a little wave back. I was satisfied, and turned back and celebrated some more, since it was finally over…

Author's Notes:

Writer's block is evil. I am definitely going to get the next the next chapter up sooner, though. Thanks to all who reviewed/liked my story. Special thanks to Far-Fetched Imaginer or beta-ing it.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed, or any of the characters in it. I do own the concept of this story, though.

Chapter 3: Reunions

We had just been freed, and we were finally leaving this evil place forever.

We walked outside, but to our shock, there was only a small plane that couldn't even fit many of us. They herded a few of us into that one, sent for more ships, and took off.

I deliberately avoided going on that ship. For some reason, I thought it might be better to avoid Athrun. I'm not sure why, maybe because it was too public to talk to him.

He seemed shocked to see me, almost disbelieving, and he would probably need some more time recover from that shock. But after that, I thought he would be fine, and we would eventually talk. You can't delay it forever, right?

After I finished thinking about that, my thoughts drifted to my family. They would be shocked at what happened. I guessed my mother would faint or be speechless. My father would probably express rage towards whoever did it.

The rest of the PLANTS, Orb, and the rest of Earth would be shocked, too. It would definitely cause some sort of further investigation of the Earth Alliance. Possibly cause a political scandal too.

If ZAFT was as outraged as I thought they would be, it could increase the fighting, assuming the war was still going on. But if the war wasn't going on, it could escalate to another war. But that's all assuming Orb wouldn't cover it up.

If I learned one thing from my father, it's that government organizations would often cover up the real truth with some falsified information.

Eventually, the two ships that were sent for us came, a large one and a small one, both Silverwind-class ships, and we all climbed in. I went in the bigger one; assuming that an equal amount of people would go in each, so in the bigger one people would have more room. Apparently, almost everyone else assumed that as well, since it was very crowded in there. Everybody was pretty much shoulder to shoulder, and everybody was moving about, trying to get away from the others, making the situation even more uncomfortable. I got tired of this and somehow shoved myself into the corner, away from the others.

Again, I started wondering about my old life. It would be hard to readjust to it, since I had been living away for so long. It would be hard to do everyday activities, such as shopping or going out for a walk, or meeting people I knew.

The trip on the ship was short, and we soon got there. We landed in a hanger used for other civilian ships, and before we got off, the pilot of the ship spoke to us, "Everybody, remain calm when getting off. You will be escorted to a room where you will be informed of everything that you need to know."

There was a general sense of excitement as we got off the ship, and were escorted by soldiers to a large room, as the pilot said. There were more guards in the room and many computers arranged in isles, with walkways at both sides. Other former captives were using all of the computers, too.

The blond haired girl – Cagalli, stood up on a platform with a microphone, Athrun and the other guard – Kisaka next to her, "Welcome to Orb," she announced, "For the past whatever amount of time, you have been at that facility by the Earth Alliance, as prisoners of war. The war has since ended, and a treaty has been signed. However, to keep the peace, the official story is that terrorists captured you for unknown purposes after you were all found injured in combat."

Yep, they changed the story, no surprise there. She continued talking, "What the others here are doing is, using a historical record of the war, they are finding out what happened to them and others close to them who were involved with politics during and after the war. And when a computer becomes empty, you will be escorted to temporary living quarters until the story is released. Also, feel free to fill an empty computer, **_without_** killing everyone else around you."

After she stopped talking, there was a small murmur in the group. A few people, like me, went to either walkway, hoping to procure a spot on a computer first. A computer became freed up on the other side, and there was a rush to it. A few from this side went over to false hopes of getting it. Most stayed on this side, though. A computer, closer to this side this time, freed up, and there was a mad rush to it. I was beaten to it by another person, who surpassed me halfway, and I snapped angrily. While I was on my way back, feeling slightly dejected, another computer in the back opened, and I was easily able to get it.

I smiled briefly, and got searching for my name. It came back with a few results, most notably my father's name. I was undecided what to click on first, but decided to find out myself.

I read over the basic facts, like on what ship I stationed on, or what I piloted. I skimmed over the rest, until I came across a small part that said "Status: KIA by Earth Forces on 4.15" I wasn't that surprised. I wasn't sure, but I'm sure it was the date when the Blitz was destroyed. I went back, and clicked on my father's name. It also listed basic facts about him. Again I skimmed to the bottom, stopping only when I saw my name, and the letters KIA, when it was talking about relatives. When I reached the bottom, it said he was still a member of the PLANT Supreme Council. I wasn't this time, either, since he was devoted to the PLANTs.

I hesitated for a second, wondering if there was anyone else I should find out about, and then I typed Commander Le Crueze. I found his name, and then found out he was killed during the battle that ended the war. I then proceeded to type in Yzak's and Dearka's names. I quickly found out what had happened to them, with Dearka being demoted for some reason, and Yzak being promoted. Feeling satisfied, I stood up and walked to the back of the room where I would be escorted somewhere.

When I got there, I noticed there was no one else there except for girl Cagalli and her guards. The guards supposed to escort me were missing, probably escorting someone else. Cagalli apparently noticed this after a few seconds, and said, "Oh! Um…there are no guards here right now…"

"Cagalli, um…. I'll escort him," Athrun replied, slightly hesitant.

"Ok."

After she said that, there was an awkward silence for a few seconds, and Athrun walked in front of me. I followed him. Once we left the room, the silence continued. When we finally turned a corner, he muttered, "Nicol…"

I replied, but with a bit more confidence, "Athrun…"

"What happened, Nicol?

"What do you mean 'what happened?'"

"I mean, what happened after the Blitz was destroyed! You were inside it! You got hit with a beam saber! How did you survive?"

"I don't know. I just did. I lost consciousness after the explosion, and then I was captured. I have no idea what happened to me. But what happened to you? How did you become a member of Orb?

"Well, after your de…disappearance, I got promoted. But there was a… problem with the people inside ZAFT. So I switched to Orb and neutrality, and the war ended a little while later."

"And what happened at the end of the war?"

"ZAFT tried to destroy the Earth Alliance with a super weapon. The Earth Alliance tried to destroy the Plants with nuclear weapons. They both launched a big battle with Orb participated, and eventually, both sides were stopped, and an agreement was signed."

"Oh…." I said, slightly confused, "So…what else has happened?

"The agreements were signed three months ago, but the PLANTS and Earth still don't get along…"

There was another awkward silence as we continued walking. After a minute, I finally said. "What happened to my parents?"

"I'm not sure. Sorry. I know your father wasn't arrested after the war. But I don't really know…"

There was another silence, but then Athrun finally asked something it seemed like he had wanted to ask, "Nicol…. after this, are you going back to the PLANTS?"

I shrugged, "Yeah, I guess so. I had always imagined if I got freed, I would go back there again. Besides, my parents are up there, and I really need to see them."

"But after all they did?"

"Athrun, I barely know what they did. Besides, looking past that, what other reasons are there to not live in the PLANTs?"

Athrun stuttered for a second, but couldn't come up with a response. He had a look of disappointment on his face. He looked down, and said, "If it's…bad there, if you don't like it, you know you can came here to Orb, right?"

"Ok, thanks Athrun."

We took another left, and reached a door. He opened it, and said, "Here it is, your temporary living quarters," before we hugged. "See you later?" he asked me.

I stopped and thought for a second, before smiling, and answering, "Yeah. I'll see you later." I then hugged him again, and walked into my room.

Author's Notes:

Well, it's the end if my story and I feel it's an ok ending. On the topic of the character from the last chapter who received no mention this chapter, I'll explain, for anyone who might be confused. He was originally intended to be Miguel, but I thought that might take the focus of the story away from Nicol. But I did leave a quick hint, mentioning blond hair, but I decided to keep it up to the reader's imagination. Also, for anyone who was confused, Athrun's reaction was NOT meant to be he didn't believe it was Nicol, it was just that he was in a state of shock. I thought it was a reaction Athrun might have. Thanks to all you have read and liked it, and special thanks to Far


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